‘Brutally beaten’: Stuart Anderson found guilty of murder of elderly neighbour

A handyman who beat his elderly neighbour to death in own home told a TV crew before he was caught that “she didn’t deserve this”.

A handyman has been found guilty of brutally murdering his elderly neighbour in a robbery gone wrong that left his victim badly beaten and laying in a pool of her own blood.

Stuart Anderson, 42, was convicted on Thursday of the murder of Vicki Ramadan, 77, at her Sydenham home in Melbourne’s northwest.

The elderly woman was found badly decomposed in the hallway of her home on April 6, 2019.

Anderson had denied being involved in Ms Ramadan’s death, even fronting news cameras in the days following her murder saying “I hope the coppers catch him”.

He argued that Ms Ramadan was killed by another home invader since she was known to wear expensive jewellery and carry large amounts of cash.

A Supreme Court jury was unconvinced, however, taking only a day of deliberation before unanimously finding Anderson guilty of the murder.

It was the third time the case had gone to trial, with Anderson’s first case, early in 2022, ending in a hung jury before a problematic witness caused his second trial to be aborted earlier this year.

Vicki Ramadan was found beaten to death in her own home.

She was 77 when killed by Anderson.

Crown prosecutor Neill Hutton, during the trial, described the scene of Ms Ramadan’s death.

“The prosecution says this is, in effect, a burglary gone wrong,” he said.

“She was brutally beaten about the head and bloody and found lying in a pool of blood.

“She died almost immediately from those injuries.”

Those injuries, according to the autopsy, included multiple skull, cheek and jaw fractures; several teeth were also located in the pool of blood with Ms Ramadan’s body.

Anderson called the police on April 6 and claimed he found Ms Ramadan’s body when he entered her residence to pick up some tools he had left there when doing some odd jobs at her house in the weeks prior.

“She’s lying on the hallway floor,” he told triple-0. “I’ve got no idea how she died. I just know there is blood everywhere.

Stuart Anderson murdered his elderly neighbour. Picture: A Current Affair / 9 News

“There’s blood all over the floor. There’s blood on the walls.

“I can definitely tell she’s dead.”

A spine-tingling recording of an streetside interview Anderson gave to A Current Affair on April 16 about finding her body was played to the jury during the trial.

“I met Vickie a couple of months ago … she seemed like a very very, very lovely lady,” he said.

“I hope the cops catch the son of a b--ch because she didn’t deserve this whatsoever.

“Unfortunately, it’s a tragedy of what happened. As I said, I hope the coppers (sic) catch him.”

Anderson’s defence barrister Glenn Casement failed to convince the jury that another member of the public was responsible for the break-in and murder, claiming it would never have benefited Anderson to alert the police to the crime.

“Stuart Anderson finding the body and bringing it to the attention of authorities on April 6 makes no sense if he’s the killer,” he argued.

Anderson will be sentenced by Justice Amanda Fox at a yet-to-be determined date.

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Originally published as ‘Brutally beaten’: Stuart Anderson found guilty of murder of elderly neighbour